It seems the right hand doesn’t know what the farther right hand is doing in Israel’s new government. An Israeli friend tells me this story reminds him of the “wise men” of Chelm!

A few hours ago, Defense Minister Yaalon announced with fanfare that he was implementing a three-month “study” that involved forbidding Palestinian workers in Israel from riding buses with Jewish settlers. It’s worth noting that even Rosa Parks could ride on the same bus with whites during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Israel wouldn’t even permit this level of racial ‘mingling.’

The plan had been discussed and advocated by the settlers and government ministers for at least two years. Clearly, with the new cabinet being the most radical in Israeli history, this apartheid bus plan had the full support of the entire government.

But apparently, Yaalon didn’t get all his Likud ducks in a row. Former minister Gideon Saar, no liberal he, tweeted that the bus plan created a severe image problem for Israel in the world and that the plan should be stopped forthwith. I’m guessing the prime minister may’ve also heard from Pres. Rivlin, who seems to be what’s left of Likud’s moral conscience.

At any rate, only a few hours after the apartheid bus plan was announced, it was scrapped by order of the prime minister. The suspension happened precisely at the same time the new deputy defense minister was introducing and defending it in the Knesset! Go figure.

Please, don’t let’s hear from our liberal Zionist friends shouting a Huzzah for democracy and the triumph of reason. The suspension is no victory for anyone. Everyone knows that apartheid buses are what the government wants and will eventually get. The time wasn’t right in this instance. But next time, Bibi and Yaalon will do the spade work and ram this sucker down everyone’s throats. And the world be damned.

I also guessing there is sensitivity on the part of some in Likud that at the same time as its introducing the most extremist government in the nation’s history might not be the most appropriate time to highlight the more racist, incendiary plans the government has in store. Better to have a cooling off period to let the world get used to the new government before going whole hog on that score.

I’m amused by liberal Zionist journalists like Anshel Pfeffer who claim the bus plan was a “screw-up” brought on by a strident, powerful settler movement. This obscures the fact that this government IS a settler government. It is all settlers, all the time. It exists to serve settlers. Without them it would have no rhyme of reason. This was no screw-up. They knew exactly what they were doing. But the optics and timing turned bad and the plan was shelved temporarily.

Great idea!
First take their land, then de-humanize them and kick them out of their remaining “Reservations” and then ask why they cannot live grandly “in their own work places”. Suddenly, the oppressor looks completely legitimate and reasonable and the blame is on the victim…again!

@ None: I think the best solution is for you to stop offering nincompoop suggestions about how Palestinians should survive. If you don’t want them to work inside Israel then permit an independent state that has full economic independence–or annex them so that they may function fully & freely as Israeli citizens in their own country.

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May 21, 2015 12:25 AM

Marc

What a damn pity that the plan was suspended.

It is a highly important and useful plan. It exposes the “unsweetened” face of the Israeli government and, by extension, of Israel. It is to be hoped that the plan be reintroduced as speedily as possible.

My own translation (I tried to be literal as possible, please excuse the Hebrew idioms):

The Council of Shomron Settlers claimed that there are cases of sexual harassment on the buses, and even the CEO of the bus company said something similar. It turns out that there are no such complaints, and the two women who were brought to us as examples told stories of uncomfortable feelings and unsympathetic brushing, but very far away from an actual problem of concentrated sexual harassment (by Palestinians against Israeli women -M). One woman told us, while obstructing her face (“in shadows” or “shadowed” in the original -M), that two Arabs laughed at her in Arabic. She doesn’t speak the language, but she’s sure that that’s what happened.

MP Moti Yogev, an ardent supporter of separation, talked of burning Tzitziot on buses in an official session of the Knesset. When I talked to him about it, it turned out that it was barely an urban legend.

Worst of all, around the Minister of Defense there were talks about a security threat. We said: But the IDF representative said in the Knesset that there was no threat. We were told: Ask again, the Central Command Chief (אלוף פקמ”ז) says there is a threat. We went to the IDF Spokesperson for comment. We were told officialy: The IDF does not think there is a security threat. I thought to myself – this can’t be. Let’s ask again more clearly. We asked again, explained, got the same answer. Given this context, how is the Minister of Defense willing to enact this racist policy? How does [Moshe] Bogie [Ya’alon] bring himself to the point where the Prime Minister has to stop him?

Israel is not the only place in the world where lies about “the Other” get created and repeated so often that they become Truth which is then used to justfy atrocities upon and oppression of “the Other”…ask the Jews who survived the Shoah.

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May 20, 2015 9:01 AM

Tankist

You obviously don’t get around much. Think Europe and Muslim which is repeatedly spoken of on this blog.

I think this plan is stupid b/c if it will be implemented, there will never be peace. Yet, the fear of someone attacking out of the blue isn’t unheared of.

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May 20, 2015 12:36 PM

Elisabeth

Racists always go on about ‘them’ eyeing and lusting after ‘our’ women.

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May 20, 2015 1:08 PM

David

Yes. It is sometimes thought that this obsession is the real basis for rabid racism, the separation of the two “races.” I wonder when a Jew will be publicly shamed for relations with an Arab woman, maybe a sign placed around their neck proclaiming this defilement of Jewishness? Or perhaps a Palestinian boy will be lynched for looking at a Jewish woman? These sorts of things are not beyond the Israel that has taken shape.

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May 21, 2015 12:36 PM

Elisabeth

Well David, what you predict already seems under way. In 2012 three Palestinian youth were beaten up so badly by a crowd of Jewish youngsters shouting ‘A Jew is a good soul and Arab is a son of a bitch,’ that one had to be resuscitated and ended up in intensive care.

After this Lehava (the government sponsored organisation that concentrates on keeping Jewish women safe from Arab men) distributed the following poster about what happened:

“Dear Arab guy:
We don’t want you to get hurt!

Our daughters are valuable to us, and just as you would not want a Jew to date your sister we are also unwilling for an Arab to date a girl from among our people.

Just as you would do anything to stop a Jew from dating your sister – so do we!
If you are thinking of visiting Jerusalem malls or the pedestrian street with the intention of dating Jewish girls – this isn’t the place for you.

You may walk around in your own village freely and find girlfriends there, not here!

Last week an Arab who thought he might find Jewish girls got hurt.

We don’t wish for you to get hurt, So respect our daughters’ honor as we mind it dearly! ”

Please notice that whenever a woman is mentioned she is not presented as an autonomous person but as property belonging to someone.

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May 23, 2015 12:12 AM

Arie Brand

I don’t know how much discomfort this plan would entail for Palestinian workers but leaving that aside for the moment I am inclined to agree with Marc that its implementation is highly desirable. Most people know very little about this conflict and/or have been influenced by hasbara. But this bus segregation, though it is compared to what the Palestinians have gone through a relatively minor thing, would yet speak for itself. No amount of Hasbara can explain that away. Unfortunately Bibi seems to understand that as well – at any case for now.

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